Fleming Rutledge is a gift to my soul.

She writes:

The season of Advent is like that. Judgment and mercy arrive at the same time. War and peace are announced by the same voice.

Advent is brutal in its evaluation of the human situation. The Gospel for the Third Sunday of Advent is Luke 3:7-20. John the Baptist is preaching the “seeker friendly” message we all probably hear on any given Sunday in our churches:

You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee the coming wrath??

Talk about attracting people to your church!

Advent gives honest evaluations to the human situation. All through life, all through history, we get put through situations where we need to understand what God wants next. I’ve been plunged into the life of Dietrich Bonhoeffer for a season and I reflect on his horrifying choices in the context of the darkness we observe in Advent. How does he live faithfully to Christ, to his country, and to the Jewish people who are suffering?

We need to face the harsh realities of our lives. The harsh realities of our culture. Advent calls us to that. We must always be on the lookout for the evil that may reside in us.

Somehow, we refuse to be a people, a culture, that wants to face harsh realities. We have horrific events unfold in our day and national leaders will try and say, “We’re better than this.”

Advent comes along and says, “No, this really IS you.”

The harsh question Fleming Rutledge poses in this season is this: Is there a living God who acts on behalf of his creation? Is there a righteous God who is working his purposes out in and through the griefs and atrocities of the human drama?

Come, Emmanuel.